"If we're making barriers for someone to get treatment, whether it's traveling 60 miles for treatment or to see a specialist or get medications updated, you will see noncompliance and people who don't want to or can't follow their regimen."īeing able to treat them within their community "is fantastic," he said. Older seniors, especially, "tend not to be able to travel well," Groathouse said. "It just snowballs," and sending them far from home for treatment only exacerbates their loneliness and isolation, she said. Older adults have heightened risk factors for mental health issues, including suicide fueled by isolation grief loss of friends, family and support systems and loss of control over their own lives, said Shelly Cox, director of McKee's behavioral health services. Having a behavioral health unit dedicated to seniors is also important, Snyder said, because some other units with younger and more aggressive patients can "present a higher risk for older adults." Older adults, different risks NOWHERE TO HEAL: Fort Collins hospitalized homeless face life-threatening gap The rest were sent to treatment facilities outside the county, according to UCHealth. Those transferred to Mountain Crest were treated in the adult unit. It does not have a separate facility for older patients.Īs part of the $100 million commitment, UCHealth plans to add an inpatient behavioral health unit at University of Colorado Hospital in Denver, integrate behavioral health with primary care and provide tele-behavioral health consultation services through UCHealth's Virtual Health Center. Of those transfers last year, 78% were transferred within Larimer County, many to UCHealth Mountain Crest Behavioral Center in Fort Collins. Last year UCHealth - which recently committed more than $100 million over the next five years to improve access to behavioral health - treated 5,681 patients age 55 and older at its Fort Collins and Loveland hospitals who required transfers to behavioral health centers. HEALTH CARE NEWS: Innovation to monitor UCHealth patients at home "It's great McKee is getting in ahead of the curve." "As the population gets older, this is an area where we will see a high need," he said. "There's definitely a need for the full continuum of care," said Nathan Groathouse, spokesman for SummitStone Partners, which offers behavioral health prevention, intervention and treatment of adolescents throughout Larimer County. "They could not feed themselves they were not taking their medications and they were unable to meet their own needs with their own resources."īanner spent $5 million transforming a vacant wing on the second floor into a self-contained unit with its own medical staff, patient rooms, therapy rooms and dining area to meet the growing need. "These were patients so gravely disabled because of their behavioral disorders they were not able to function in their own environment," Snyder said. The average length of stay has been seven days. The unit's first patient came in within 24 hours of opening, and in its first month, the facility has treated 12 patients, all admitted through its emergency departments with symptoms including anxiety, major depressive disorders, post-traumatic stress, anxiety and suicidal ideologies. It will accept medically stable patients referred from any hospital emergency room or medical unit, including UCHealth's facilities in Northern Colorado - Poudre Valley Hospital, Medical Center of the Rockies and a new Greeley hospital - if space is available, said Peter Snyder, senior behavioral health services director. 26, serving Banner's patients in Larimer and Weld counties, including Banner Fort Collins Medical Center, North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley and McKee. Now Banner has opened a 17-bed unit at McKee Medical Center in Loveland for those age 55 and older suffering from mental health issues, hoping to provide treatment close to home. LOVELAND - The trend became evident more than two years ago: Older adults showing up in the emergency room suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal thoughts or other mental health issues.īanner Health last year alone treated and transferred 105 patients over age 55 from its Larimer and Weld hospitals to behavioral health centers - often an hour away - because of limited mental health beds in Northern Colorado.
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